Menlo-Atherton High grad Trish (King) Porter called a news conference Friday to report she lost her husband, an Olympian, and her 15-year-old son along with her son's friend in a plane crash in Sedona, Ariz. on Thursday morning.
Porter, who competed in the high jump and was an Olympian in 1988, told Associated Press Pat Porter was the pilot of a Beech B-60 when it crashed and burst into flames on takeoff.
She explained her husband and the two boys traveled to Sedona for three days before the plane went down.
Porter said she and her husband had exchanged a series of "humorous text messages" just before the crash occurred.
"My last text message to him: 'When are you coming home'?" she said at the press conference, with her daughter, Shannon, 11, beside her.
Trish Porter said she found out about the crash Thursday afternoon while driving back from ice skating training for Shannon.
Pat Porter, an Olympian and 13-time distance runner national champion, and Trish were married in 1991 after the two met during a pre-Olympic training camp for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. They moved to Albuquerque in 1994.
"He made me laugh," Porter said. "He was just a lot of fun."
Pat Porter was a track star at Evergreen High School in Colorado and won eight USA Track and Field senior men's cross-country national championships. Connor Porter was nationally ranked in fencing.
